Johannesburg — THE upmarket Ruimsig, Johannesburg, home of Angus Cruikshank, whose company, Ovation, was allegedly used to launder money for Fidentia, goes on auction at the end of the month in the latest bid to recover R1,4bn owed to Fidentia creditors.

It is believed most of the money that went via Fidentia to either Ovation or Cruikshank's companies came from the Living Hands Trust, or the orphans and widows fund, as it is better known. Fidentia curators have to queue with 17000 investors in Ovation Global Investment Services and its trust company Ovation Global Investment nominees who are owed R271,4m.

Fidentia curators Dines Gihwala and George Papadakis are in pursuit of the R24,8m they say former Fidentia boss J Arthur Brown owes personally. On Monday they issued summons against Brown for payment of the R11,5m they say was misappropriated from Fidentia and used to buy two Cape Town properties. They also issued summons against Brown to sequestrate his estate.

The civil case against Brown follows the Cape High Court's dismissal last month of an application by curators to confiscate the Cape Town properties valued at about R20m.

In the absence of proper financial records it became a case of the curators' word against Brown's as to how the homes were paid for. Brown said the money came from Fidentia but was owed to him.

Gihwala said yesterday the curators now had the proof they needed. "Let him come to court, and we can discuss it there." It was decided they would have more success with witnesses called to the stand to testify.

In the summons issued against Brown this week, curators are asking for the R11m, plus 15,5% interest a year, they claim Brown misappropriated in June 2003, when he gave permission as director of Fidentia Holdings for money for two Cape properties to be paid out of its bank account.

The money for the properties, bought for R5,3m and R5,9m, was never repaid by the SL Brown Family Trust and the CAM Brown Family Trust.

Curators of Cruikshank's estate are trying to trace more than R200m missing from Ovation and asset management company Common Cents. Fidentia is alleged to have paid at least R63m to Ovation and Cruikshank's other companies, money believed to have been taken from the Living Hands Trust.

Ovation Global, 75% owned by Cruikshank's estate, and 25% owned by Fidentia, operated out of Fidentia's offices in Cape Town. Cruikshank committed suicide last year, allegedly taking rat poison, after the theft of the money was discovered by the Financial Services Board. His estate was sequestrated in April at the request of Fidentia curators.